New York, NY, December 1, 2003… The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today condemned a U.N. Secretary General's report on the Israeli Security Fence for ignoring the context surrounding the construction of the barrier.

Barbara B. Balser, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director issued the following statement to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan:

We have shared with you in the past our concerns about the perception of the UN as a body that singles out Israel for condemnation, while doing little about threats to Israeli civilians.  
 
The report you issued on Friday regarding Israel's security fence is the latest example of the counterproductive efforts by the UN to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
 
Your report comes just days after Israel was forced to withdraw a resolution protecting Israeli children from terrorism at the Third Committee, following demands by member states for amendments to the text that would have turned the draft into an anti-Israel resolution.  Yet, just two weeks earlier, the same committee adopted a similar resolution calling for the protection of Palestinian children.
 
This latest report on the fence ignores Israel's right to defend itself from a continuous onslaught of terrorist attacks.  To speak about a complicated subject like Israel's need to build a barrier to protect its citizens without giving the context – the most horrendous, continuous suicide attacks against a people that our world has seen – negates the report's credibility.
 
Israeli leaders have affirmed time and again that the fence is not an attempt to draw up permanent borders, but a means of securing Israel and preventing suicide bombers from reaching Israeli civilians.  The fact is that Israel has been and will be open to negotiations about the territories if only the Palestinians end the conflict and accept Israel's legitimacy.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.